The first Mongol ruler to embrace Islām, Berke succeeded to the khanate soon after the death of his brother Batu. His conversion, as well as the rising power of his cousin Hülegü in Persia, led him to seek alliance with the Mamlūks of Egypt and resulted in war with Hülegü, conqueror of the Caliphate. He also became involved in the dispute over the great khanate between Kublai and Arigböge. Nominally a suzerain of the great khan, Berke became increasingly autonomous and died virtually independent.

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Russian designation for the Ulus Juchi, the western part of the Mongol empire, which flourished from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols, with the latter generally constituting the aristocracy.

c. 1217 Feb. 8, 1265 Jazīreh-ye-Shāhī, Iran Mongol ruler in Iran who founded the Il-Khanid dynasty and, as part of a Mongol program of subduing the Islāmic world, seized and sacked Baghdad, the religious and cultural capital of Islām. Some historians consider that...

...enduring Mongol successor state, that of the Golden Horde, with its headquarters at Sarai on the lower Volga River, followed a rather different course. Its Islamization, begun under Batu’s brother Berke (1257–67), led to tensions with the il-khans but resulted in the forging of strong links with the Mamlūks of Egypt. The Mamlūks were themselves Kipchak Turks from the Kipchak...